Agricultura – Ştiinţă şi practică no. 1- 2(89-90)/2014 Agriculture - Science and Practice - 90 - IN VITRO PROPAGATION OF Lonicera kamtschatica Fira Al. 1) , Doina Clapa 1)* , Victoria Cristea 2) , Catita Plopa 3) 1) Fruit Research Station Cluj, 5 Horticultorilor Street, 400457 Cluj-Napoca, Cluj Romania, * corresponding author: doinaclapa@yahoo.com 2) “Babeş-Bolyai” University, “Alexandru Borza” Botanical Garden, 42 Republicii str., 400015 Cluj-Napoca,Cluj, Romania, 3) Research and Development Institute for Fruit Tree, Pitesti – Maracineni,402 Marului Street, 117450 Arges, Romania Abstract. The goal of this study was to elaborate a micropropagation protocol for Lonicera kamtschatica. Large-sized plantlets were obtained, with long axillary shoots and high proliferation rates by the use of cytokinin CPPU. The use of starch as a gelling agent is an element of novelty and it proved to be very effective and five times cheaper as compared to agar. The most suitable iron source for the in vitro culture of this species proved to be FeNaEDDHA (Sequestrene 138), whereas the microcutting types that yielded the highest multiplication rates were the 3-5 node lateral shoots. The axillary shoots were sucessfully rooted directly ex vitro in the acclimatization stage in floating perlite, which is a method routinely used at the Fruit Research Station Cluj. Keywords: Atut, CPPU, Sequestrene 138, starch, micropropagation. Abbreviations: IBA - indolyl butyric acid BAP- 6-benzilaminopurine CPPU - N-(2-Cloro-4-pyridyl)-N-phenylurea MS - Murashige and Skoog Media (Murashige and Skoog, 1962) mT - meta-topoline WPM - Woody Plant Medium (Lloyd and McCown, 1980) PR-proliferation rate MR - multiplication rate INTRODUCTION Lonicera kamtschatica is a fruit shrub in Family Caprifoliaceae, from the boreal regions of Russia and Japan. It is extremely frost-tolerant and resistant to pests and diseases. Lonicera kamtschatica fruits contain high amounts of vitamins (ascorbic acid, niacin and totopherols), minerals (potassium, calcium, phosphorus), phenolic compounds (protocatechuic, gentisic, elagic, ferulic, cafeic, chlorogenic and coumaric acid) as well as anthocyanins, which represent 0.31 % from the fruit mass. From the anthocyanins, 83.3 % is cyanidin-3 glucoside and the rest are tens of other types, like paeonidin-3 glucoside, cyanidin-3 rutinoside, malvidin-3-arabinoside, petunidin-3 glucoside, petunidin-3- rutinoside (Palikova et al., 2008). Having in view its nutritional and medicinal qualities, this species is an extremely important crop plant. Micropropagation could be an effective alternative to the classical, traditional method of propagation by cuttings, as it could be used for the production of large amounts of healthy planting material in a short time. The cultivar investigated in our study is a very important one, highly productive, with good quality fruit, containing high amounts of ascorbic acid and anthocyanins (Malodobry et al., 2010). The goal of our research was to increase the effectiveness of micropropagation in Lonicera kamtschatica, cultivar ‘Atut’.